January 29, 2012

i’ve recently become addicted to chawne’s blog, completely cauchy.
i have a not-so-secret desire to quilt,
and since i don’t have time for a new craft,
i’ve decided to live vicariously through her.

her humor,
photography,
and general attitude
are so bitches get stitches.

except,
you know,
with quilting.

one of the things i love most about her
is how juxtaposes the idea of the ‘wholesomeness’ of crafting
with profanity.

personally, i think it’s genius;
it makes us critical of our assumptions about
crafting
‘women’s’ work
self expression
and what one’s allowed to say.

plus she’s hilarious and makes beautiful shit.

recently,
she wrote a guest blog post for whipup
that has caused a mini internet shit storm.
she shared some of her quilts that have profanity stitched on,
including one that has a word with a very powerful history in the u.s.
it took a lot of courage to put that out there,
to share sometime very personal,
and she’s taken some hits for it.

after emailing her asking for permission,
i decided to write a post in support.
i applaud her for being vulnerable
and for confronting racism with her art.

those who say
“she shouldn’t use that word” or
“whipup isn’t the place for this” or
“you should have warned me!”
miss the point entirely;
they foreclose the conversation
so they don’t have to deal with the situation.
making any word off limits doesn’t fix the anything;
it just empowers it in a different way.

i’d also encourage you to think about how the internet works;
you may only see words on a screen,
and that can make people pretty brave with their comments.
but there are people on the other side
people who deserve respect.

so check yourself, bitches.

***this post reflects my thoughts and opinions only. i speak for no one else’s point of view than my own***